Hedge fund boss gets 6 1/2 years in insider case

Published 12:32 pm, Monday, May 13, 2013

NEW YORK — The co-founder of a Connecticut hedge fund who authorities said made his firm nearly $70 million in illegal profit through insider trading was sentenced Monday to 6 1/2 years in prison.

Anthony Chiasson, 39, of Manhattan, had been convicted in December of five counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan also ordered him to pay a $5 million fine.

Prosecutors said Chiasson was part of a group of portfolio managers and analysts who got inside information from employees at publicly traded companies. In one example, the government said Chiasson earned more than $58 million for Greenwich-based Level Global Investors illegally by trading on tips received about Dell Inc. stock in 2008. A tip from another firm in 2009 brought in about $10 million in illegal profits.

"Anthony Chiasson chose to be part of a corrupt circle of friends that cheated the mark! et to gain an unfair trading advantage, and for that, he lost his career, his reputation and now he has lost his liberty," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

Chiasson was convicted in December along with Todd Newman, 48, of Needham, Mass., a former hedge fund manager at Stamford-based Diamondback Capital Management. He was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison earlier this month.

Five other men connected to the circle have pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, authorities said. They all await sentencing.

The case was part of a government crackdown on insider trading in recent years that has resulted in more than 80 arrests and 70 convictions.